Officials from the Olympics have weakened their case for complete gender parity by claiming on Sky News that it would be too expensive to field as many women's football teams as men's teams.
Since women's football was added to the Olympic program in 1996, although men's teams began competing in the Games in 1900, there has been a gender disparity in athletics.
According to Sky News, FIFA has pushed for the inclusion of four more women's national teams in order to equal the 16-team men's competition.
Given how profitable the matches are for ticket sales, it is understood that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is unlikely to remove four men's teams.
In a statement to Sky News, the IOC stated: "The men's football competition is an exception, as it is the only team sport with sixteen teams, and is based on a long-standing agreement that the present IOC leadership respects.
Adding more women's teams would lead to requests from other team sports, which would increase the expense, complexity, scale, and sustainability of the Games even more."
In basketball, handball, hockey, rugby sevens, and volleyball, there are equal numbers of men's and women's teams; but, in water polo, there are fewer women players.
The Olympic charter includes the idea of gender equality, which was the day's focus for the IOC in Paris.
When questioned about it by Sky News during the press conference today, they had suggested that there was a desire to eliminate the differences between the football competitions.
"The direction is set... we are on a journey and we need to continue to work," stated Marie Sallois, head of corporate development and sustainability at the IOC.
But as the IOC gave additional information, it became evident that there were challenges along the way.
The IOC statement went on, "The IOC is committed to keeping the Olympic Games within a set framework, to reduce cost and complexity."
"10,500 athletes will compete overall in the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024.
"Generally speaking, the IOC will have to deduct any additional spots requested by an international [sports] federation from either the current quota for that sport or the quota for another sport.
"This was not possible for Olympic Games Paris 2024, which explains the quotas in place."
Over 11,000 men and women are taking part in Paris, with the gender ratio being almost equal.
However, there are 20 mixed-gender events and 157 events for men and 152 for women.
Three years have passed since Team GB's last appearance in the women's football tournament in Tokyo, as England advanced to the 2019 Women's World Cup semifinals.
However, England was not able to go to Paris due to the new Nations League structure.
In theory, Team GB men qualified for the Olympics in Paris thanks to England's victory in the most recent U21 European Championship.
However, aside from London 2012, Britain does not field men's football players due to concerns that the four home countries may lose their unique FIFA status, which prevents them from competing in the World Cup and European Championship.
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